Editing Pen name (section)

===Female authors===
Some female authors have used pen names to ensure that their works were accepted by publishers and/or the public. Such is the case of Peru's [[Clarinda (poet)|Clarinda]], whose work was published in the early 17th century. More often, women have adopted masculine pen names. This was common in the 19th century when women were beginning to make inroads into literature but it was felt they would not be taken as seriously by readers as male authors. For example, Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name [[George Eliot]]; and Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, and Baronne Dudevant, used the pseudonym [[George Sand]]. [[Charlotte Brontë|Charlotte]], [[Emily Brontë|Emily]], and [[Anne Brontë]] published under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, respectively. French-Savoyard writer and poet [[Amélie Gex]] published as Dian de Jeânna ("John, son of Jane") during the first half of her career. [[Karen Blixen]]'s very successful ''[[Out of Africa]]'' (1937) was originally published under the pen name Isak Dinesen. [[Victoria Benedictsson]], a Swedish author of the 19th century, wrote under the name Ernst Ahlgren. The [[science fiction]] author Alice B. Sheldon for many years published under the masculine name of [[James Tiptree, Jr.]], the discovery of which led to a deep discussion of gender in the genre.

More recently, women who write in genres commonly written by men sometimes use initials, such as [[K. A. Applegate]], [[C. J. Cherryh]], [[P. N. Elrod]], [[D. C. Fontana]], [[S. E. Hinton]], [[Gail Riplinger|G. A. Riplinger]], [[Nora Roberts#J. D. Robb|J. D. Robb]], and [[J. K. Rowling]],{{efn|The publisher of [[J.K. Rowling]], author of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, felt that Rowling's obviously female first name "Joanne" would dissuade boys from reading the novel series.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/the-evolution-of-female-pen-names-from-currer-bell-to-j-k-rowling-46864|title=The evolution of female pen-names from Currer Bell to J.K. Rowling|author=Michelle Smith|date=30 August 2015|work=The Conversation}}</ref>}} who also writes the ''[[Cormoran Strike]]'' series of crime fiction novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Alternatively, they may use a unisex pen name, such as [[Robin Hobb]] (the second pen name of novelist [[Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden]]).